Plato said, "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder." I think this is important. Because, let's face it, what we see is what we be. Even though we know better--even though Jesus told us not to judge according to appearance, but to judge righteous judgment--we look at something and we make snap judgments. Snap decisions. The whole idea of "love at first sight." That feeling we get where we KNOW something just by looking at it. It can be a powerful feeling, but let me tell you what I tell my three and a half year old son, Logan: Feel what you feel, just don't let it control you. There's nothing wrong with feelings, or emotions. But we can get into a lot of trouble when we are led by our feelings or emotions. It's the idea of the soul--your mind, will, or emotions--being in charge. Now before I quote this Scripture let me just make certain we understand that in the Bible the man represents the spirit, and the woman represents the soul. So when the Apostle Paul said, "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to ursurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" (1 Timothy 2:12), we can see the truth about the spirit and the soul. I'm NOT talking about natural men or women. Some of the best teachers in the world are women. That's a fact, Jack. But we're talking spiritually. We're talking about the eyes. Natural eyes (or the soul) can only see the surface things. But Spiritual eyes (literally the Holy Spirit) sees what's inside. Watch this progression in Song of Solomon: First we see (in Chapter 1 verse 15), "Behold, thou art fair, my love; thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes." Then, as we go a little bit further (in Chapter 5 verse 2), "I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." Doves' eyes... to being a dove. Seeing through the Holy Spirit... to being transformed by it. What we see is what we be. What we believe defines our reality. What we magnify is what manifests in our lives. Not being ruled by the soul, but being led by the Spirit. Now let's bring this home. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The way we see each other is so important. The way we see each other needs to be the way God--the way LOVE--sees us. And when God looks at us, He sees Jesus. When God looks at Jesus He sees us. As He is so are we in this world. Our true identity is NOT the surface stuff. It's the inner man. The hidden man of the heart. Guys... you are not what people call you. But you ARE what you answer to. How you see God is how you see yourself, and others. That's why Jesus--the light of the world--came to show us the Father. He shined His light so we could see clearly. And by SEEING clearly, we don't have to judge by appearance. We can judge righteous judgment. We see with love and we BE what we SEE!

A long time ago my pastor told me that people go to church for a whole lot of reasons. And I've found this to be true outside of church as well. We do things for a whole lot of reasons--even though we don't seem to understand that the single reason driving EVERYTHING we do is the desire to be loved. We do things because we feel guilty. Or because we are trying to hide something else we did (and you KNOW that'll just keep snowballing). We do lots of different things for seemingly lots of different reasons because we are looking for love in all the wrong places. Trying to earn something that was freely given and can only be received (and released). Look at Romans 13:8, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." I can't express how important this idea is. We don't owe anybody anything... except love. This takes all of the other reasons for doing ANYTHING and throws them out the window. I have a picture on my phone that says, "Love made me do it." That's the way Jesus lived His life. Everything He did, He did because He was motivated by love and moved with compassion. He didn't live FOR the Father, He lived BY the Father. Just as we don't live FOR Him, but we live BY Him. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). We live by having faith in the One who lives in us! Not by trying to live His life, but by letting Him live His life in and through and as us! All we need is love. And that's what we have. That's what the Holy Spirit is constantly and continually revealing to us. There's a still small voice inside of us whispering the truth--leading and guiding us into all truth--and it says, "I love you, I love you, I love you. I can't stop loving you. You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And because of that love... because we HAVE everything we need... we can stop trying to get something we think we don't have, and instead we can share what we DO have! We can fulfill the law, so to speak, by loving each other. We can pay what we owe, if I can say it that way, because we have something to give. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So knowing and believing the love of Christ is what equips and empowers us to obey the New Commandment of loving each other as Jesus loves us! It's not OUR love, and it's not us trying to GET love. It's HIS love that we already HAVE. And because we already have it, and because it's too good to keep to ourselves, we can share it. Because we are filled (to overflowing) with what we (and everybody else) needs... we can let it out naturally. We can give it to everybody who needs it (which is everybody!). We can shine that light. We can fill that void. We can love... because we are loved. Because we are love!

Love is all we need. And while we can't always get what we want if we try (rest) sometimes, we just might find we get what we need. Because we already have what we need. The key is seeing it. Because seeing is believing. This revelation is summed up in Mark 15:39, "And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God." He SAW the death of the Lamb, and that's where the revelation came from. We try so hard to "figure God out," when really He is constantly revealing Himself to us (and in us, and through us). We spend so much time arguing about stuff... or trying to get stuff in order to fill that void we feel inside of us... that we miss the point of all of it. We miss the truth that God is love. And that we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. We miss the truth that the very thing we desire... the very cry of our hearts... to be loved and accepted... is the very thing that has always (and will always) be true. God loves you. Always has, always will. He would have to deny His very nature in order to do anything else but love you. His love for us was never the issue. It was our ability to receive that love... to see it... to know it and believe it... that was an issue. And that's why God poured His Spirit out on all flesh. That's why He took up abode in us. That's why He circumsized our hearts. So that once the flesh (of human effort) was cut away we could SEE His heart beating in our chest. Beating with love. And since the love is already in us, it's not something we need to get. It's not external. It's not from the outside-in. It's from the inside-out. It's the truth about us that has been buried under all of the surface stuff. It's the deep calling out to the deep. The hidden man of the heart. It's who we really are. Not just LOVED, but LOVE. And if we can move past the appearance realm and into the eternal invisible realm... if we can move past the surface stuff and into what is real... then we can enjoy the gift that has already been given to us! We can begin to receive and release the love of God! We can obey the New Commandment by loving one another as Jesus loves us. We can let what's already inside us flow out naturally. We can understand that what we need... is what we have. Another line in a song from Zac Brown Band, "I've got everything I need, and nothing that I don't." We have Jesus. We have love. He did it all so we could get it all. And now we HAVE it all. So instead of looking for love in all the wrong places we can rest in the open arms of a heavenly Father who loves us. Instead of trying to earn something that can't be earned, we can receive (by releasing) what we have been freely given. Instead of loving in order to get love (I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine), we can love because we ARE loved (I'll scratch your back because it's itchy and I love you). We have all we need, and what we have is so good we can't help but share it!

The Rolling Stones said it like this, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need." Sometimes I think we really confuse those two terms: Wants and needs. And the unfortunate part is when we miss out on what we need because we're focused on what we want. Or rather, what we think we want. See, I'm convinced that the desire of man's heart is be loved and accepted. That's what, at the end of the day, we really want. But we've convinced ourselves that we aren't good enough to get that. We don't deserve unconditional love and acceptance. Maybe--just maybe--if we work hard enough we can EARN it, but it's certainly not something someone would just GIVE us. And that's why we spend so much time, and get into so much trouble, looking for love in all the wrong places. We think we WANT things--material objects, or what have you. In my case books and Mt. Dew--and we think if we get those things that we WANT then we'll be happy. But while those things might bring us moments of "happiness," they are temporary. They don't last. I drink the Mt. Dew and then it's gone. I read the book and then it's over. And then I need more Mt. Dew and more books. It's a never ending cycle. Jesus said it like this, "...Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13-14). Drinking and getting thirsty again. Getting what you WANT and then wanting something else. It's not satisying. It's the carrot and the stick. You want the carrot, but the stick keeps moving just out of reach. But here's the answer, the solution: If we drink the water HE gives us it springs up out of us into everlasting life! If we go to the source we CAN get what we need. And it's everlasting. It's eternal. It's abundant. It's Resurrection Life! We go to the well to drink and we find out that WE are the well that is full of that water of life. We are loved, and that love has transformed us so that we are LOVE. And here's the best part of all: When we go to the source to satisfy our NEED, we find out that what we NEED and what we really WANT is the same thing. We want to be loved and accepted. And we NEED to be loved and accepted. Remember the analogy of a car needing gas? Humans need love. It sustains us. It keeps us going. It empowers us to be who we really are. But the key is to realize that what we want and what we need are the same thing. And we find it in Him. Psalm 37:4 says it like this, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." That's not an if-then statement. Not, "If I delight myself in Him, then he'll give me what I want." That's God telling us HOW to receive the desires of our heart. Because the desire of our heart--to be loved--is satisfied when we delight ourselves in Him. HE is the desire of our heart. HE is all we need!

There's only one thing that can satisfy the desire of your heart. And His name is Jesus. Because the desire of your heart is to be loved. And God IS love. When we understand this simple truth, we can cut out a lot of the STUFF that always tries to get in the way. Or, as Hebrews 12:1 puts it, "...let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Don't struggle with it, don't fight with it, don't try to overcome it... just lay it aside. Because Jesus already fought with it, and overcame it. And check this out: If Jesus already overcame... then there's nothing left for us to overcome. We are not overcomers because of what WE do. We are overcomers becuase of what HE did. Revelation 12:11 tells us, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." It's HIS blood and HIS testimony! See, our testimony IS His testimony when we stop loving OUR lives and we realize that it's HIS life IN us! When we understand that His death was OUR death, and HIS life is OUR life! That's when we can stop trying to overcome. Stop trying to earn something that is freely given and can only be received. That's when things get easy. That's when what's inside of us can flow out naturally. When we stop trying to "get" it and simply know and believe that we already have it. This is the hardest thing (for me at least) to really get a hold of. It's like the Wizard of Oz. When we get to the end of the journey, we find out that we've had what we were looking for the entire time! We wasted so much time looking for love in all the wrong places when we could have simply gone straight to the source. We can lay aside the sin (or unbelief) that so easily besets us and we can boldly approach the throne of grace to find grace to help in times of trouble. We can draw from the well of salvation with joy, because we know we are connected to the source. Love is all we need, and love is what we have. Love is who we are! I'm telling you, when you know that you have everything you need, you can stop working and start resting. You can stop trying to earn something and you can just begin to experience and enjoy the gift that you've been given. Love is all we need. Love is to a human being like gas is to a car. It's what fills us up and keeps us going. But cars don't run because they NEED gas. They run ON gas. And that's how it is with us. If we're trying to get love--because we think we don't have it--then we'll always be chasing it. But when we know and believe the love that flows with every beat of God's heart in our chests... that's when we can share what we've got. That's when we can truly live. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. You can't love until you KNOW that you are loved. You can't live until you receive the life that Jesus gave for us and to us on the cross!

The Beatles said it best, "All we need is love, love, love is all we need." I'm convinced that when we say things like, "Jesus is the answer," this is what we really mean. LOVE is the answer. For way too long we've been stuck feeding from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thinking that by doing good and not doing evil we're accomplishing something. When really both good AND evil are on the same tree so what we've been doing is swinging from branch to branch and not getting anywhere. That's why "religion" is so frustrating--because behavior modification doesn't work. If I don't do something because it's "evil" but it's what I really want to do... then all I'm really doing is prolonging the agony of struggling not to do it. BUT if I understand that sin is not what I do, but what I believe, then I have something that can bring about actual, real, lasting change. And when I say "bring about," I really mean "bring forth." Because the change that needed to happen took place 2,000 years ago on the cross when we were conformed into the image of God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. When we were translated out of the power of darkness and into the Kingdom of God's dear Son. When we died with Him (He died for us and as us) and then rose with Him. When God poured out His Spirit on all flesh. And that's the key. Because before the cross we couldn't believe that God could love us, because we judged everything by appearance. We judged OURSELVES by our actions. Colossians 1:21-22 says it like this, "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." We thought God was mad at us. So we hid from His presence. Without the Holy Spirit His love was too good to be true. We didn't believe we deserved it. We couldn't receive it. Even though it was the one thing we were desperately yearning for. Which is why we tried to earn it. Knowledge of good and evil. If I know enough about good and evil I can do good (and be rewarded) and stop doing evil (and avoid punishment). But that was never what God wanted for us. He told Adam, "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). The tree of knowledge of good and evil was the tree of death. And eating from it could only produce death. Behavior modification robs us of life. It keeps us in bondage. Dead in our trespasses and sins. What God wanted for us was the OTHER tree in the garden of Eden. The Tree of Life. And the fruit (of the Spirit) that the Tree of Life produces? LOVE! God wanted for us to feast on His love! In 1 John 4:8 when John tells us that "God is love," the word love there means love feast! Our appetite (which is NOT to sin, but to be loved) can only be satisfied if we eat the right meal. Bread and wine. Lamb. Love. If you're hungry, if you're thirsty, if you're in need of something... you have to go to the source. Love is all we need, and God is love. He IS the source. HE is all we need!

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is... there is love. Let me say it like this, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). So where the light is... there is no darkness. Because the light causes the dark to flee. Where love is... there is no fear. Because perfect love casts out fear. And if you're not afraid--to love, because you know you ARE loved--then you're not afraid to live. Because to live is to love and to love is live. That's what liberty, or freedom, is really all about. Not freedom TO sin--sin isn't freedom, it's bondage--but freedom FROM sin. I don't think people want to sin--and, again, I believe sin isn't what you do, but what you believe, but it seems like most people use "sin" to define "bad behavior" so let's run with that. I don't think people want to "do bad stuff." I think people are looking for love in all the wrong places and that's when we get into trouble with all of that "bad stuff." And the solution to that problem is NOT, "Do good stuff or else." The solution to the problem of looking for love in all the wrong places is simply to go to the source. To know and believe the love of Christ. And I say, "know and believe," because you can't believe something you don't know. Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. That's why it's so important to PREACH the gospel. And I love this quote, "Preach the gospel at all times, and if you have to, use words." It's about SHOWING people something different. A more excellent way. The best way to get someone to understand, or accept, or know and believe, that they are loved... is for you to love them. And that's what the Holy Spirit--our love receptor--equips and empowers us to do. We CAN love because we ARE loved. You can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. So if you know (and believe) that you are loved... then you have something you can give. You have received the gift of God--eternal life, knowing the Father and the One whom He sent, living in the context of your true identity as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--and you can share that gift. It's not, "Now I can do bad stuff and not get in trouble." It's, "Now I don't have to do that bad stuff, because I've found what I was looking for." Trying to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow--trying to make a living--is not what God wants for you. He wants you to experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as He lives it in you and through you and as you! He IS the bread of life that you were trying to earn. He IS the love that you were trying to find. And instead of of making you earn it, or find it, He gave it to you. He reveals it to you, and in you, and through you. So now you are free to stop trying and start resting. Free to BE loved, and to love others with that same love. Free to truly live.

Free FROM sin--unbelief, external circumstances, expectations--makes us free TO love. Because what is unbelief except not believing that God loves us? That's the sin of the world that Jesus took away. And He took it away by giving us something (someone, Himself) to believe in. He told us what love is--who God is--and then on the cross He SHOWED us what love is. He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his freinds" (John 15:13). And then He went to the cross and put His money where His mouth was. He literally laid His life down for us. He gave His life for us, and He gave His life TO us. And now, in that same way, we can lay down our lives for each other. We can, "Let nothing be done through strife or bainflory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not evey man on his own thing, but every man on the things of others" (Philippians 2:3-4)." Let me say it like this, if I take care of you, and you take care of me, neither one of us has to take care of ourselves... and both of us are still taken care of! That's what it means to cherish your own body. Realize that I'm a part of your body and cherish me, even as I realize that you're a part of my body and cherish you! It's like we have this idea where if I put you down then I can took bigger. If I climb on you I can reach higher. But the economy of the Kingdom says we should ONLY look down on somebody in order to help them up. Don't judge people... help people! And when we know how much Jesus has helped US, that frees us to be able to help each other. It's not helping so that we can get help. It's not, "I'll scratch your back so that you'll scratch mine." It's, "I have what I need, and I have what YOU need, so let me share it with you." Let me scratch your itch, simply so you won't be itchy anymore. We have been freed from anything and everything that could hold us back. We're not in bondage anymore. We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins, but Jesus came to bring us out of bondage and into the Promised Land. Out of death and into life. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where the breath, or the Word, of the controller is, there is freedom. The love of Christ controls us. Love made me do it. That's why I want to do everything I do. Because I'm moved with compassion and motivated by love. Not because I'm trying to get something, but because I already have something. We have already been blessed with all Spiritual blessings. We have already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. We have the mind of Christ--the lowliness of mind that our passage in Phillipians spoke of--we just need to LET the mind of Christ, that's already in us, BE in us. We are free. We have liberty. We can live, and we can love. We can live... BY loving!

We are free to love--because we ARE loved--and that makes us free to live. That's our liberty. That's why there is liberty where the Spirit of the Lord is. His love empowers us to love. His life, in us and through us and as us, is what empowers us to live. Look at what Jesus said when speaking of the Spirit, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath annointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19). THIS is what it means to truly be alive. To be dead to sin and alive to God. See, when you think you don't have something your focus is on yourself. Filling that void. But when you know what you've got--when you know that you have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness, and you have been blessed with all Spiritual blessings--then you can stop worrying about yourself and you can start taking care of others. I've really been finding myself in this position lately: I don't want anything from anybody. I don't want anybody to feel obligated to do anything, or give anything, to me. And that is SO freeing. Because it takes a lot of expectations out of the equation. Instead of, "I'll scratch your back in the hopes that you scratch mine," (which is a set-up for disappointment) I can scratch your back because it's itchy. Instead of trying to give in order to get... I can give because I have. I'm blown away by the truth in Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." When we had nothing to give... He gave it all. He gave His life for us and He gave His life to us. He died so we could die and He rose again so we could rise again! He broke the yoke that was dragging us down. He freed us from the bondage of sin and death. Not because we "deserved" it, or had earned it... but simply because He loved us. And now, because of the Spirit--because we can finally receive, and know, and believe that love--we can love in the same way. We can do for others without expectation. We can stop trying to get something, and simply share what we've already got. We don't have to fend for ourselves, or be afraid to lose what we've got. Because what we've got is never ending. It's abundant. It's everlasting. It's eternal. And the more we use it, the more it grows. I guess I'm saying we don't have to be afraid. We don't have to be afraid to love--which is to say we don't have to be afraid to live. Because, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:18-19). His love is where our love comes from. And because we are connected to the source, what we have will never run out. So we can give it and give it and give it. We can live it and live it and live it. We can love and love and love! Because we're free. Because where His Spirit is, there is liberty!

When you're in bondage, you may be "living" but you certainly aren't ALIVE. And make no mistake, that's what Jesus came to fix. He didn't come to make "bad" people "good." He came to make dead people alive. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were the walking dead. The living dead. We were trying to do in order to be. Trying to earn the love and acceptance of a God who we thought was distant and angry. We didn't have His Spirit--the love receptor--so we couldn't receive His love. We couldn't believe He could love dirty sinners like us. We were God's enemies in our mind because of our wicked works. We were robbing ourselves from the gift of God by trying to earn something that was freely given. And, again, that's where the Holy Spirit comes on. "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). Now watch this. A word study of the three key words in this verse really make it come alive. Spirit is number 4151 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "current of air, that is, breath." Lord is number 2962 and it means, "supreme in authority, controller." And liberty is number 1657 and means, "freedom." So where the breath of the controller is, there is freedom. And I know on the surface that might seem confusing. Because if the controller is speaking, that would seem to imply slavery or bondage. Which is how some people see God. "Jesus is my boss." I have to do what God says or else He's going to get me. That's the Law of Moses, though. NOT the perfect law of liberty. 2 Corinthians 5:14 in the NLT tells us, "Either way, Christ's love controls us." The breath--or the Word--of God is love. Every breath we take and every move we make flows from the love that fills us to overflowing. And that's what freedom is really all about. Freedom is not behaving badly and getting away with it. Freedom is being able to do what we truly want to do! Not freedom TO sin, but freedom FROM sin. Freedom TO love, because we know and believe that we ARE loved. If you don't have freedom, you don't have life. To live is to love. To love is to live. Jesus gave us freedom from death! I'll say it again: We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. Jesus brought us out of death and into life. Abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life! We were dead. Then we died with Jesus again on the cross. That's the second death. Then when He rose again, we rose again. The new birth. A new creature. A new man. A new life. Let me say it like this, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). His death was our death. His death was the death OF death. And now we are free. Free to run. Free to dance. Free to love. Free to live!